At the 2018 summer split finals, Riot hosted a showmatch that caused League of Legends fans everywhere to rejoice.
The match featured League of Legends personalities including Imaqtpie, Voyboy, and even Tyler1 gracing the Oracle arena as part of a heated exhibition.
After TSM earned victory over 100 Thieves in the NA LCS third-place match, the stage revealed Tyler1 and Riot Games’ Phreak standing together. Phreak is well known as one of Tyler1’s biggest critics, but dutifully filled in as his support in the showmatch against the appropriately named Meme Stream Dream Team.
Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp earned a reputation as League of Legends’ most toxic content creator and was banned from public play in 2016, but in early 2018 was unbanned after proving, both in the eyes of the community and to Riot’s judges, that he had changed his negative tendencies.
In the past, Riot has been scrutinized for its lack of content creator support, discouraging many vocal fans from continuing to create new content related to League of Legends. Personalities like Uberdanger have expressed their dissatisfaction, and many remember Videogamedunkey’s famous break from League of Legends content creation.
New games like Fortnite have proved much more adept in supporting content creators. So it was a pleasant surprise when Riot welcomed a controversial but entertaining person like Tyler1 into the NA LCS finals venue.
Just days before, Riot also announced their new Content Creator Partnership Program. The program is designed to allow video content creators special access to things such as early information and unique social media integration with Riot Games. With this and the community giving overwhelming support to the new showmatch, many fans hope it’s indicative of more community outreach to come.
